Scott County Prime Farmland Mapping Project

Scott County contains some of the most productive agricultural soils in the metropolitan region and provides a valuable resource to produce local foods for the Twin Cities population. However, suburban growth has significantly increased land values in the rural parts of the county, creating a potential conflict between the use of land for agriculture and future urbanization. Scott County's 2030 Comprehensive Plan designates much of the existing farmland around the growing cities of Jordan, Belle Plaine, and New Prague as 'urban expansion' or 'urban transition' areas eligible for higher density development.

Graduate students in urban and regional planning from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs worked with the Scott County Department of Planning and the Jordan Area Visioning Alliance (JAVA) on a multipart study. This project, the third part of the study, involved using geographic information systems (GIS) analysis to identify land in Scott County that is most and least suitable for agricultural production to help inform land preservation efforts.